When people reflect on what they’re thankful for this
Thanksgiving holiday, I hope they don’t think it’s materialistic to be grateful
for the Black Friday sales that are coming a few hours later. Don’t get me wrong—I’m thankful for freedom,
family, friends, and God above all else—but I would be amiss in neglecting my
appreciation for the biggest shopping day of the year.

Thinking about it takes me back to a few weeks ago to the West
Coast Leadership Conference, where students received a crash-course in
capitalism with lessons that I wish millions more could learn. Dr. David Newton, professor of
entrepreneurial finance at Westmont College, and Mr. Andy Puzder, president and
CEO of CKE Restaurants, Inc. were there discussing their new eBook, Job Creation: How it Really Works and Why the Government Doesn’t Understand It.
Puzder, no stranger to running successful companies and creating jobs,
offered insight onto how far-reaching capitalism is: “Every time we open a new
restaurant we create 25 jobs in that restaurant approximately. We also create
jobs for the people that design the restaurant, the people that are hired to
get the restaurant licensed, the construction workers that build the
restaurant. And then we create all of those concentric circle jobs for all of
the people from whom we buy food, and we do advertising. This is how capitalism
works, this is how it functions. “

What is profoundly sad is how so many people don’t get this
message or refuse to understand it. Even
before the Obama administration and undoubtedly long after it, there has been a
concerted effort to demean the risk-takers and the money-makers. Unless they take economics courses, students
on America’s college campuses are taught that being successful can be a bad
thing and that America has committed countless wrongs in the name of
capitalism. In spite of this, I’d be
willing to bet that leftist professors and others keen on the idea of wealth
redistribution still take advantage of Black Friday deals and other Christmas
Sales.

Some might argue that celebrating Black Friday is too
consumerist or that the whole holiday shopping season takes the true meaning out
of Christmas, and there’s probably some truth to that. The beauty, however, lies in the freedom that
makes capitalism possible. That is something worth celebrating.

So if you’re not inclined to wait outside your favorite
store at o-dark-thirty or battle other shoppers for that last HDTV, just
remember that the clothes on your back, the food you eat, the car you drive,
and countless other things were brought to you by capitalism. And if that’s not something simple to be thankful
for, I don’t know what is.